Mr. Tact wrote on Dec 19, 2012, 07:56:It is both. First, EA believes socialization of the game will increase sales. Second, they want to be able to force sales of the next version by shutting down the servers for the earlier version. In EA's mind, it is a win-win. And no, I'm not saying they are right.

Wrong.While they likely believe socialization will increase sales, they know it's not necessary to force. If you put it in there with a "login to Facebook to find friends" then those that want it will use it. Those that don't will not. They're not dumb enough to think that people that don't want it will magically be persuaded to use it. They know a good chunk of people will avoid playing with anyone. They just don't care. They think the pirates they avoid will make up for the sales they lose.

Also, they will NOT shut down the servers of a game being actively played just because the new version is out. For one, it'd be extremely tricky with this, because they'd be killing single player. No one will buy a next version of a game if the old version magically ceases working. People complain about this regularly, but have we had a single game's single player magically cease working yet, other than ones whose companies have gone out of business (and which are those?) More importantly, EA has only really done the "shut down because a new version is out" with sports games over 2 versions old, not "the next version." It's still a dumb move, but they do it to games no one is playing.It isn't so much about making them get the new version, and hell, people clinging to sports games with rosters/teams/rules 3 years old are the type that won't buy the new version, they'll go to GameStop and buy last year's for $2.99 used.